SCC Question Papers Gaffe: Those affected to be evaluated differently

Education Minister Dipu Moni yesterday in parliament said the answer scripts of SSC examinees, who were given the wrong question papers on the first day of the examinations, will be evaluated differently but did not specify how.

In response to lawmakers' queries, she said the government has formed an investigation committee and proper action would be taken against those responsible in line with the findings in the investigation report.

"We have already identified the students who were given wrong question papers and their exam papers will be evaluated in different way," Dipu Moni said.

Her proposal, however, drew flak from one of the MPs.

Jatiya Party MP Fakhrul Imam criticised the minister for her proposal saying that it was "devoid of morality".

"How will she evaluate those students' exam papers? Will she give full marks to them? What will be the standard of evaluating the papers of those students? The minister didn't mention anything about that,” he said.

In response, Dipu Moni said her ministry would welcome anyone who comes up with a better suggestion in this regard.

Earlier, opposition JP MP Mujibul Haque Chunnu, during a question-answer session, raised the issue saying the future of the affected students would be in danger due to the mistake.

On Saturday, examinees in at least 18 examination centres were given wrong question papers of the Bangla First Paper exam. They were provided with the questions according to the 2018 syllabus, which, like every year, was prepared for students who missed the previous year's exams.

The centres where the incident occurred are Madaripur, Chattogram, Jamalpur, Naogaon, Sherpur, Satkhira, Munshiganj, Gaibandha, Brahmanbaria and Bagerhat, according to media reports.

Meanwhile, at least 16 teachers, including six centre secretaries, were relieved from their duties for distributing wrong question papers over the last two days.

In Chandpur, four secretaries of four exams centres were relieved of their duties in Hajiganj upazila.

Hajiganj Upazila Nirbahi Officer Baishakhi Barua told our local correspondent that six other teachers of different educational institutions were also relieved from their duties for the same reason.

In Madaripur, six teachers -- one secretary, one assistant secretary, two hall superintendents and two assistant teachers -- were relieved from their duties, our local correspondent reports.

The teachers provided the previous year's Bangla first paper questions to 180 examinees, said Mohammad Obaidul Islam, deputy commissioner of Madaripur.

The students informed the teachers about the wrong question paper soon after the exam began but the teachers did not take any immediate steps in this regard, he said.

In Chattogram, punitive action was taken against one examination centre secretary.

Md Obaidul Haque, exam centre secretary of Patenga High School, also the acting head master of the school, was relieved from duty as he did not follow the instructions of the board.

Mahbub Hasan, exam controller of Chattogram Education Board, told The Daily Star that the secretary redistributed the question papers, around one hour after the wrong question papers were handed out, without the board being informed.

"He cannot distribute the question papers after the mistake on his own without informing the education board," said Mahbub.

“The decision of taking action against six other examination centre secretaries would be decided today [Monday],” he added.

Wrong question papers were given to examinees of at least seven centres under the board.

Yesterday, the education minister in the House said that examinees could not be affected due to the mistake of "certain invigilators and concerned secretaries" of the centres.

Contacted, Prof M Ziaul Haque, chairman of Dhaka Education Board, said they were collecting reports from the upazila administrations as part of their primary investigation.

"We will analyse the reports and then form a probe body to investigate who are responsible and how many examinees were affected," he told this newspaper.

This year, a total of 21.35 lakh students from 28,682 institutions, have registered for the SSC exams.